Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Shooting in Oregon spikes interest for the Workplace Violence Training

By Mikala Lindhardt

Public safety officials at Utah State University met with employees on Wednesday to discuss what to do if someone was shooting at people on campus.

The meeting came in response to increased requests for training in the wake of the Oct. 1 shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College.

Utah State emergency management coordinator Judy Crockett said there has been an ongoing push to provide the Workplace Violence Training workshop to everyone on campus about how to respond to an “active shooter” situation, but the need really “comes to light when there is a shooting.”

“With this shooting in Oregon, it really pushed the training to be active again,” Crockett said. “These trainings are not mandatory and someday I would like to see them be mandatory, but we have a good portion of the university that does this training.”

Crockett facilitated the Wednesday session alongside Capt. Steve Milne of the Utah State University Police Department.

The 8 a.m. employee training featured a 20 minute video about what to do in the event of an active shooter, as well as a discussion centered on three main concepts — run, hide and fight.

“We can’t tell you what to do because you are the one in the situation,” Crockett said. “You’re the one that’s going to have to make the decision, but we feel like we can give you knowledge as a tool to help you make the decision.”

In the event that someone comes onto campus and begins shooting, Utah State has technology set up to send out an emergency email to warn students and employees on campus.

“I can have people informed with four clicks of the mouse on my computer,” Crockett said.

But Milne would rather never have to send out such a message.

“One of the things we really try to do is to be proactive,” he said. “We don’t want to do all this training when it happens; we would like to prevent it from happening.”

That’s why students, professors and employees can submit a “student of concern” form to USU if they feel threatened. That form will go to the Utah State Behavioral Intervention Team to proceed with further action.

“They take a look what happened with a complaint and decide from there,” Crockett said.

More information on what to do in response to a person who is shooting or brandishing a weapon on campus is available on the USU Department of Public Safety website.
 
 

Saturday, October 10, 2015





Changes are made to USU’s Honors Program


By Mikala Lindhardt



The Utah State University Honors Program has seen changes throughout the past few weeks with higher enrollment and a new service-learning scholarship award.

The program has a highest number of students this fall than in years past with 680 currently enrolled.  

“We are trying to get more visibility and get more people involved, like the faculty, students and organizations, so we can make more opportunities for our students,” said Amber Summers-Graham, the honors program coordinator.

Throughout the years, scholarships and awards have been added to the program, the newest being the Elaine Alder Service-Learning Scholarship Award established a few weeks ago, said Summers-Graham.

“This annual award will recognize a stellar honors student engaged in service-learning,” Summers-Graham said. “They will have significant service accomplishments.”

The requirements for the service-learning scholarship include 400 hours of community service, nine credits of service-learning course work, a capstone project, a service-learning portfolio and a meeting with a service-learning advisor. The sophomore or junior honors student chosen will be awarded the $1,000 scholarship.

The University Honors Program director, Kristine Miller, said this new scholarship, along with the honors program, “helps students by showcasing their outstanding achievements and encouraging them to continue challenging themselves to make a difference.”

Miller had the task of starting a new honors program in 2014. She changed the title from the Departmental Honors Program to the University Honors Program.

“With the University Honors, it’s more of a relationship with the entire university as a whole,” said Summers-Graham. “We are becoming more visible university wide and it has truly become a more university program.”

The honors program is based on four pillars of education. The pillars include critical thinking, independent research, interdisciplinary learning and civic engagement.

“Everything that we do, our breadth classes and the capstone project, is to engage these four pillars,” Summers-Graham said. “This is kind of the foundation and what it does will be different for each of the students.”  

Summers-Graham said the honors program committee is there to act as a support and a guide for students as they identify what they hope to accomplish.

“We are there to help them prepare for what comes next and discover what they want to be,” Summers-Graham said.
 

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Utah State creates canine category for homecoming week activities

By Mikala Lindhardt

 

For the first time dogs were invited to join the annual 5K Bull Run, held this year for Utah State University’s homecoming week, as registered participants.

 

“This race, which has been billed as a family outing, can include everyone in the family, including the family dog,” said Josh Paulsen, the marketing director for the Alumni Center. “We ended up having close to a 15 percent increase in attendance this year than last year.”

 

According to Paulsen, the university was consistently getting the same number of people for the 5K. By including the canine category, event organizers sought for more students, faculty and alumni to get involved.

 

“We thought we could draw in a new audience with this addition and it would also be fun to add a fun element with people dressing up their dogs and all,” Paulsen said.

 

The annual 5K run and the new dog walk were free to the public. However, participants could purchase a Utah State bandana for $5. The money earned from these sales covered the cost of the event, and the additional profit was given to the USU Spirit Squad.

 

Paulsen said, approximately $2,200 was raised this year.

 

"All donations that come from USU's campus and the surrounding Cache Valley area are greatly appreciated," said Madison Maners, the public relations and marketing director for USU student Association. "We could not do the things we do without the support of our community."

 

Paulsen said he and his committee feel this event is an enjoyable family outing. They hope people had fun dressing up their dogs and participating in an enjoyable fundraising race.

 

"We are planning on doing the race again next year," he said. "We're excited to see if we can grow it."